<p>Other parents might be interested in hearing the most recent development from my procrastinating daughter, in case you’re going through something similar:</p>
<p>She decided that she would submit her first college application (due November 1) before leaving for dinner with friends on Friday. (She has two scholarship applications due November 1, too, so it is actually high time.) I was happy that she decided not to wait until the last minute, and sat beside her and answered her questions as she worked on the applications for several hours Friday afternoon. She was really motivated, so I should be thrilled, right?</p>
<p>Then I read her last essay. It is just not ready to submit. Essays 1 and 2 are somewhat polished, as she’s worked on them for two months and two weeks, respectively. Essay 3 seems like it was thrown together. This is a college application from which scholarship winners are chosen as well, so I had to be the mean mommy and tell her it needed more work before she sent it. </p>
<p>Tonight she spent the hour it took me to make dinner sitting at the kitchen island with the essay in front of her, doodling on the essay in red marker. Nothing has been submitted this weekend. She’s running hot and cold; motivated, and then, nothing. What an interesting process this is!</p>
<p>I loved the prom/texting/“Do I still get a cake?” story several pages back! Keep the stories coming!</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the congrats, Sunday was a total loss unfortunately when it comes to college apps. Surprise “quick english assignment” turned into a 7 hr ordeal punctuated by needing to wake up at 4 am to finish it. Of course, if he had focussed on it first thing Sun. instead of hanging out with GF…so college apps? Next weekend will be a wash too with football Sat. and another band competition Sun. There are 4 schools that I can upload his essay to and press submit without him. Oh, and then he had to spend time yesterday dealing with “friends” who want to say they think he’s ditching them to be with the GF (his first mind you) and that he’s being conceited about the king thing. I just love these “friends” always looking out for you, don’t you? Poor kid looked so dazed and sad after that call, he’s been on cloud nine for the last week and it’s sad some of his “friends” can’t just be happy for him for once.</p>
<p>My first post! I’ve been lurking and nodding and cheering you all on silently for some time, but decided to post for the first time as we end another weekend without getting much done. I understand that DS2 is busy and I tried to make him understand during that summer that it would be really difficult to accomplish all that had to be done if he waited until school started. But, here we are, in the midst of a fall sport (he’s a captain – so that adds to the commitment), 6 AP classes, band, and volunteer commitments, trying to squeeze out enough time on the weekends to make some progress. To top it off, there is a GF in the picture – his first. It’s sweet, but to be honest, the last thing he needs right now is a distraction. Sigh.</p>
<p>I did have him captive in the car for about 3 hours on Saturday as we went to visit a safety school on his list (academic, but especially financial). We did have a nice conversation about the need for a financial safety and the reality of the situation if a reach school accepts him, but without enough merit/financial aid. He seems okay with the safety … not in love with it, but when presented with other options, has said that he would rather go to “safety U” than many other places. I guess that’s enough for now.</p>
<p>I’m impressed by all of the kids who have spent countless hours on the essays, writing, editing, polishing. My son is a good writer and feels that the essay that he zipped off yesterday in an hour will be okay. When I suggested that he "let it sit for a couple of days and then revisit it " or “have someone else take a look at it” , he’s clearly insulted. I haven’t read it yet, and he hasn’t offered, so I don’t know if it’s a total flop or magnificent. </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me join in on your conversation. Commiserating with all of you who have active, involved kids who are having a hard time getting all of this done.</p>
<p>I’m with you Ohiomom! The new gf is the last thing we need right now too! I almost feel like pulling her aside and giving her a payoff to disappear for a month so we can just get these apps done! He’s so head over heels it’s sweet. But messing up my magnificent plans!!!</p>
<p>This is crunch time at our school for any EA applications that have a very early November deadline because guidance requires a 3 week notification for transcript requests. I keep mentioning those deadlines to my son because he sees November 5 and thinks that HE has 3 weeks, but that’s not really the case. Son has a GF of two years (she’s also a senior) but fortunately, she’s even more motivated then him so both of them forgive each other when apps or academics are involved.</p>
<p>AmandaK: It’s a shame that your son’s friends are giving him a hard time. It sounds like they’re jealous. It should die down soon. </p>
<p>I can relate to how you and Ohiomom feel about the GFs. My daughter has her first serious boyfriend also. He’s very sweet, but does take up a lot of her time. He’s planning on going to CC next year, so he doesn’t have applications to keep him busy. </p>
<p>Welcome Ohiomom. My daughter also thought that the essays she that she zipped off were ready to send. She was very upset when her English teacher thought they needed work. That was a week ago, and she hasn’t made any progress. She’s extremely independent with her school work and doesn’t want my help with the essays. She has 2 rolling safety applications that are ready to send once she finalizes the essay, but she’s dragging her feet.
It’s so nice to have other parents to vent with! Thanks.</p>
<p>Still nothing on the application front here. D is running stage crew for the fall play this coming weekend, so nothing is going to happen until after Sunday. Then, I am really going to clamp down. I mean it this time! No more Nice Mom! She WILL fill out the Common App, get her essay to her teacher(s) for review and get me her ACT info so I (yes, I’ll take care of this piece) can send out her ACT scores to her six schools. And request her transcripts be sent to these schools as well. I’m not sure about the logistics of getting the application in versus getting transcripts and test scores to the schools, but I’m thinking that it’s ok if the scores and transcripts get there before the applications. Is that correct? I feel like I need to do SOMETHING!
I’m simultaneously dealing with S (class of 2013) who will be going to our local community college if things continue at their current pace. He doesn’t seem to think so and his total lack of effort (a C student who should be an A student) is making me very sad. But that’s for another thread.</p>
<p>Just got an email from head of S’s guidance dept that there will be a webinar today at lunch to discuss the college application process. As we worked on applications over the weekend we came up with a list of questions I asked (ok told) S to discuss with his GC. Maybe I can get those questions answered during the webinar. </p>
<p>Has anyone linked the common app and Naviance? Looks like it can be done and school wants it done for the teacher recs, but we couldn’t get it to work yesterday. S had a class with guidance on Friday to take care of this, but I only see one school linked. One teacher has already told us he has done the recs and sent them on their way so maybe the link is transparent to me?</p>
<p>Cooker: Yes, you can send scores, transcripts and recommendations before the application. The school will start a file. Your daughter should turn in her transcript request ASAP. You probably need to include the school information (guidance counselor) froms with the request. I tracked all of those down for my daughter. The common application has an online form, but our school still does everything on paper, so we had to include the forms and envelopes for each school. I understand the need to see some progress.</p>
<p>Cooker, Our school has an actual form for the kids to fill in every time they have a transcript request. It’s handy but I can see from son’s applications that many schools must not have that because just about all of them have forms that they want the GC to fill out and many also have forms for the LOR from teachers.</p>
<p>If you go to the application site for each college you may see the forms as pdf.'s that you print out. Here’s the page from St. Michaels that is nice and straightforward - [Saint</a> Michael’s College - Apply](<a href=“http://www.smcvt.edu/admission/application/default.asp]Saint”>http://www.smcvt.edu/admission/application/default.asp) Some colleges have them at the end of the application. What our school asks the students to do is to print out those forms and attach them to the school’s transcript request form and put all in a large envelope with three stamps attached and the envelope addressed to the Colleges admissions address. Our kids then get a receipt when the package is actually sent out from guidance in homeroom.</p>
<p>Amandakayak Congrats to you and your son! Sorry he had to deal with friends who think they know better what is good for him. </p>
<p>S as almost all other seniors needs to step up his efforts on the applications. Now his ECs are not taking as much time as they will later in the year, so if he can’t find time now, it’s going to be even harder in a month. He finished one of his reach schools app and almost all other reach school’s applications can use the same supplementary essay. But his match and safety school applications are the ones that will require several new essays that he did not even start. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any interview tips? S already had 2 - one with a current student and another one with an ad com. Both were very informal and not intimidating. Should that be expected from other interviews?</p>
<p>Keylime, my best interviewing tip is what few kids want to hear, but it really helps: practice (role-play) actually responding to questions - out loud. You can get tons of sample questions in library books, or search here on cc.</p>
<p>The point is, it’s different to “know what I would say” vs actually saying it…effectively and succinctly.</p>
<p>My D and I did this in the car on the way to her first few interviews and she said it helped immensely. Instead of searching for the right words…stammering, pausing, etc, she said she had most of the ideas on the tip of her tongue and knew how she wanted to phrase her answer, no matter what they asked.</p>
<p>Some interviews are casual and informal. Others are less so…I think it depends on the school and the style of the individual interviewer.</p>
<p>Hi everyone. Welcome to all the new posters!</p>
<p>Haven’t chimed in for a bit. It’s been crazy busy here w/ work (albeit only part time), my kids, visiting relatives.</p>
<p>Some news to report: my son now has two apps fully submitted, both rolling and one a true safety. He also submitted his ED supplement but not the CA to this school. This school requires that the supplement be submitted first. We have a question re: this for all of you. This ED school allows score choice. So far all of my S’s scores are reportable but he took his third SAT II, the math 2, in Oct. That score will be available on Oct. 28th. We’re not sure how he did on it but thought that as a science major, he should report a math score (his other sat IIs are bio and us history). </p>
<p>Our question: should he wait to submit the CA until the morning of Oct 28 so that he can report a good score? It will still be two days ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline and everything else is submitted, including the app fee. Keep in mind that if he submits the app earlier, he has listed the test as a future date on the common app so that the committee would at least see that he was taking it. however, if he didn’t do well and it doesn’t get reported, they’ll be able to surmise this. yikes, what to do?</p>
<p>My D has had an interview for drill team officer every year but one since 6th grade. I made her practice interviewing out loud every time and by last year, she was an old pro. I added new tips every year. Other girls came out of the interview in tears, but she was as cool as can be. </p>
<p>After that first interview in 6th grade, D came home and said, “they didn’t ask me any of the questions we practiced.” That was beside the point…she had learned the basics: Sit up straight. Never start a sentence with “ummm.” When you have finished answering the question, stop talking.</p>
<p>I made Son practice interviewing out loud before his big Eagle Scout board of review. Turned out it was too easy…one of the adults spent 95% of the time talking about his own great scouting experiences, so Son said barely a word! But still, Be Prepared!</p>
<p>MOSB: great interviewing advice. We did the same and our son found it helpful, even for questions that came out of left field. I mentioned in an earlier post that one question he got was what would you do with your time if you don’t get accepted to any of your schools and need to take a gap year?</p>
<p>last friday he had an alumni interview for one of his match schools. the woman asked him if he was applying ED (he’s applying ED elsewhere) and what other schools is he applying to. These were questions we never practiced b/c we didn’t think they’d get asked. His response: his list isn’t finalized yet and he hasn’t decided whether to apply anywhere ED. evasive but an answer. he was upset that she asked him these questions b/c he felt it was a waste of time – it would add nothing to what the school should know about him. </p>
<p>BTW, my husband is an alumni interviewer and his school specifically instructs NOT to ask these questions.</p>
<p>Some schools specifically ask where you are applying on their supplements. It may be unfair but it really prejudices me against the school… what can they possibly get from it other than an opportunity to game their yield by denying candidates they “guess” will go elsewhere?</p>
<p>The thing about interviews in general is that a large number of those conducting interviews are not well trained and generally do a terrible job. I remember when I was interviewing for legal clerkships, there were be partners who would spend most of the time talking about themselves or the firm and their one question to me would be “do you have any questions about the firm?” I always thought the same thing as RenaissanceMom’s son - how did the interview tell the interviewer anything about ME?</p>